Rocking Manhattan in boats built in the Bronx

Supporters row around Gotham for annual fundraiser

Some 100 people sacrificed hours of sleep on a Saturday in late September, and instead gathered at the Staten Island Ferry terminal in downtown Manhattan at 7 a.m. for a day-long workout.

The group came together on Sept. 27 to take part in Rocking Manhattan, an annual fundraising event now in its fourth year, organized by Hunts Point’s boat-building non-profit, Rocking the Boat.

Over several months, ten teams raised at least $1,000 each and trained for the campaign’s big event, a 28-mile row around Manhattan. Students at Rocking the Boat’s riverside campus built the wooden boats the participants rowed in from scratch.

This year, supporters raised over $150, 000 for the event. Three years ago, they raised $60,000. The money goes to programs that help students learn boatbuilding, navigating and environmental science at the non-profit.

Peter Wright, a member of the organization’s board, raised $11,000 in donations from businesses, relatives and friends.

“The reason people participate is that the idea is so great,” he said. “This is a great day, but it’s only one day. There is hard work behind this all year long.”

One first-time rower, Peter Wang, was so exhausted after the 14-mile row from Swindler’s Cove to Pier 40, he could only offer a silent thumbs-up when asked about his day on the water. Like many others who participate in the yearly event, Wang learned about the event by word of mouth, from co-workers.

The award-winning organization is no longer as obscure as it was just a few years ago.

Program assistant Elsie Gonzalez says strangers often acknowledge students and staff from the program.

“They see us walking down the street wearing Rocking the Boat T-shirts, they wave hands and yell, ‘Hey, Rocking the Boat!’” she said, adding that visitors are still surprised when they see the group’s 14,000 square-foot campus tucked between a scrap-metal recycling yard and a wholesale market on the Hunts Point waterfront.

Gonzalez, who first came to Rocking the Boat as a high school student, used physics to help her understand how to navigate a boat and biology to analyze water samples from the Bronx River. Now she teaches students what she learned.

“It’s my second home. I don’t feel like I’m actually at work,” she said.

The program now serves 3,000 students annually, but its supporters say there is still a long way to go.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dustin Goodwin, president of Rocking the Boat’s board at the celebration that followed the row. “There is so much more to explore.”